Lifeboat Foundation

Calabi-Yau manifolds, 6D shapes that are crucial to string theory, were named after the late Eugenio Calabi (right), who proposed the shapes in the 1950s, and Shing-Tung Yau, who in the 1970s set out to prove Calabi wrong but ended up doing the opposite.

Using machine learning, string theorists are finally showing how microscopic configurations of extra dimensions translate into sets of elementary particles — though not yet those of our universe.

An international collaboration of researchers, led by Philip Walther at University of Vienna, have achieved a significant breakthrough in quantum technology, with the successful demonstration of quantum interference among several single photons using a novel resource-efficient platform. The work published in the prestigious journal Science Advances represents a notable advancement in optical quantum computing that paves the way for more scalable quantum technologies.

Interference among photons, a fundamental phenomenon in quantum optics, serves as a cornerstone of optical quantum computing. It involves harnessing the properties of light, such as its wave-particle duality, to induce interference patterns, enabling the encoding and processing of quantum information.

In traditional multi-photon experiments, spatial encoding is commonly employed, wherein photons are manipulated in different spatial paths to induce interference. These experiments require intricate setups with numerous components, making them resource-intensive and challenging to scale.

In just 2 hours, small metal robots can capture most nanoscopic plastic particles from a sample of water.

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Researchers have developed a new technique that can “reprogram” magnetic cilia to move in new directions as needed. Magnetic cilia – an artificial hair-like structure containing embedded magnetic particles – are used frequently in soft robots, transporting objects and mixing liquids.

Physicists have proposed modifications to the infamous Schrödinger’s cat paradox that could help explain why quantum particles can exist in more than one state simultaneously, while large objects (like the universe) seemingly cannot.

Entanglement is a form of correlation between quantum objects, such as particles at the atomic scale. The laws of classical physics cannot explain this uniquely quantum phenomenon, yet it is one of the properties that explain the macroscopic behavior of quantum systems.

Because entanglement is central to the way quantum systems work, understanding it better could give scientists a deeper sense of how information is stored and processed efficiently in such systems.

Qubits, or quantum bits, are the building blocks of a quantum computer. However, it is extremely difficult to make specific entangled states in many-qubit systems, let alone investigate them. There are also a variety of entangled states, and telling them apart can be challenging.

Photonic quantum computers are computational tools that leverage quantum physics and utilize particles of light (i.e., photons) as units of information processing. These computers could eventually outperform conventional quantum computers in terms of speed, while also transmitting information across longer distances.

Despite their promise, photonic quantum computers have not yet reached the desired results, partly due to the inherently weak interactions between individual photons. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at University of Science and Technology of China demonstrated a large cluster state that could facilitate quantum computation in a photonic system, namely three-photon entanglement.

“Photonic quantum computing holds promise due to its operational advantages at room temperature and minimal decoherence,” Hui Wang, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org.

A collaborative study by the University of Oxford and MIT has uncovered a 3.7-billion-year-old magnetic field record from Greenland, demonstrating that Earth’s ancient magnetic field was as strong as it is today, crucial for protecting life by shielding against cosmic and solar radiation.

A new study has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth’s magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth today. The findings have been published today (April 24) in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Without its magnetic field, life on Earth would not be possible since this shields us from harmful cosmic radiation and charged particles emitted by the Sun (the ‘solar wind’). But up to now, there has been no reliable date for when the modern magnetic field was first established.

“Extracting reliable records from rocks this old is extremely challenging, and it was really exciting to see primary magnetic signals begin to emerge when we analyzed these samples in the lab.” said Dr. Claire Nichols.

How long has the Earth’s magnetic field existed? This is what a recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth hopes to address as a team of international researchers discovered evidence indicating that the Earth’s magnetic field existed as far back as 3.7 billion years ago and was approximately half as strong as it is today, which puts this as the oldest evidence of Earth’s magnetic field to date. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand the processes responsible for producing the Earth’s magnetic field, which is responsible for shielding the planet’s atmosphere and surface from harmful space weather.

For the study, the researchers analyzed iron-bearing rock formations among the Isua Supracrustal Belt in Southern West Greenland whose iron particles record the direction and strength of the magnetic field and are locked in time due to crystallization. In the end, the researchers determined that the iron particles exhibit evidence of the Earth’s magnetic field from 3.7 billion years ago along with its strength being half of what it is today.

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